Not all mothers accidentally poison their sons like Lucrezia Borgia or menace their daughters like Klytaemnestra. For Mother’s Day: a survey of the “good” mothers and mother figures in opera like Cornelia in Giulio Cesare, Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana, and Larina in Eugene Onegin.
José Cura, in one of his signature roles, gives a devastating performance of Turiddu’s farewell to his mother.
Giuseppe Verdi: “Deh, non parlare al misero” from Rigoletto
Cornell MacNeil, baritone
Reri Grist, soprano
Rome Opera Orchestra
Francesco Molinari Pradelli, conductor
Georges Bizet: “Parle-moi de ma mère” from Carmen
Pierrette Alarie, soprano
Leopold Simoneau, tenor
Orchestre des Champs-Élysées
Pierre Dervaux, conductor
Vincenzo Bellini: “Come pet me Serena…Sovra il sen” from La Sonnambula
Mariella Devia, soprano
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
Marcello Rota, conductor
Pietro Mascagni: “Mamma, quel vino è generoso” from Cavalleria rusticana
José Cura, tenor and conductor
Philharmonia Orchestra
Giacomo Puccini: “Dove eravamo?” from La fanciulla del West
Renata Tebaldi, soprano
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Franco Capuana, conductor
Peter Tchaikovsky: “Slikhali l vi za roschei glas nochnoi” from Eugene Onegin
Nuccia Focile, soprano
Olga Borodina, mezzo-soprano
Sarah Walker, mezzo-soprano
Irina Arkhipova, mezzo-soprano
Paris Orchestra
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
George Frideric Handel: “Son nato a lagrimar” from Giulio Cesare
Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Nathalie Stutzmann contralto and conductor
Orfeo 55
Jacques Offenbach: “Ah! quelle est cette voix qui me trouble l’esprit?” from Les contes d’Hoffmann
Jose van Dam, bass-baritone
Leontina Vaduva, soprano
Doris Lamprecht, mezzo-soprano
Lyon Opera Orchestra
Kent Nagano, conductor
